Vogesella urethralis-induced aspiration pneumonia and bacteremia in an elderly man

Background: Vogesella species are common aquatic Gram-negative rods first reported in 1997. Vogesella urethralis bacterium was first isolated from human urine in 2020. Only one case of Vogesella species-caused disease has been reported; however, no case of Vogesella urethralis-caused disease has been reported. Here, we report a case of aspiration pneumonia and bacteremia caused by Vogesella urethralis. Case presentation: An 82-year-old male patient was admitted with dyspnea, increased sputum production, and hypoxia. Gram-negative rods were isolated from blood and sputum cultures from the patient. He was diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia and bacteremia. Initially, Vogesella urethralis was wrongly identified as Comamonas testosteroni using fully automated susceptibility testing; however, additional 16S rRNA gene sequencing identified it as Vogesella urethralis. The patient was treated with piperacillin and tazobactam. Unfortunately, he developed aspiration pneumonia again and passed away during hospitalization. Conclusion: Since no database exists for rare bacteria in traditional clinical microbiology laboratories, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis was considered useful. We report the first case of Vogesella urethralis-induced aspiration pneumonia and bacteremia.